When the pattern was released, I had a charm package of Michael Miller solids sitting on my sewing table. I had been given this beautiful set of fabrics at the MQG's Sewdown Nashville so I decided to use them for the pattern. Krista has shared the fastest, fun improv technique. In no time I used up all the charm squares and had the middle section all done.

Despite my desire to use all the colours, I am not very comfortable with quilts which are totally scrappy or totally a riot of colours. So I grouped the colours by warn and cool. This is not something I made up, I first saw the impact of this technique in Malka Dubrawsky's quilt book Fresh Quilting - I'm not sure she invented it either but she is the person I learned it from. Just this small colour sort makes this quilt so much calmer to me.

I wanted this quilt to be for one of the new babies arriving in my family. So I picked out some larger pieces of Kona Solids that were on my shelf and added them on, carrying on with the court house steps concept that Krista used in the pattern.

When I started quilting this quilt, I thought I would practice swirls and such but almost immediately I decided that was not what I felt like doing that day. Instead of tearing out the bits I had done, I just transitioned to wavy then to straightish lines. When I got the other end I reversed the process and ended with more swirly bits.

I included a dragonfly - which is a motif that Jamie Wallen taught me at the American Quilter's Society show in Grand Rapids. These are surprisingly easy and fun to quilt.

I picked the back before I knew the gender of the baby.

This photo gives you a bit of scale, taken in the stairwell at my office building. All these photos are after the wash and dry, which really brings out the crinkle and pushes the lightly variegated King Tut cotton thread into the folds.

I bound her with a black sketch fabric, which I think works very well with all the colours.

I am not sure which way up I like better, this way or the yellow on top as in the first photo. It does not really matter, it is for a baby, not a wall.